Work that is never done
We often think of innovation in one of two ways. First, there are innovative products that capture the public imagination and satisfy demand. Examples might include the iPod, the Dyson vacuum cleaner or the clockwork radio. Alternatively, there are innovative processes, which make and deliver products and services more cheaply and efficiently - an example is internet banking. It is usually assumed that any new business must have either an innovative product or an innovative process to succeed.
There are, however, other ways of being innovative. Spotting a niche in an established market and moving to fill it does not fit either of the categories above, but requires just as much creative thinking. The popular ice cream maker Ben and Jerry’s relied on branding and marketing allied to product quality to create a niche in the ice cream market. The view of the founders - that high-quality, high-priced ice cream could and would sell to affluent consumers - was itself innovative as were their subsequent marketing strategies. In Britain, the Body Shop rose to success partly on the back of its environmentally friendly products, but also because the founders created a strong brand around environmentalism and social responsibility. This was a big innovation at the time.
What is more, those companies that start up on the back of successful product or process innovation are sooner or later faced with the problem of how to maintain the advantage that innovation has given them. We often read that the pace of innovation is increasing, with more new ideas coming on to the market more quickly than ever before.
The flip side of this trend is that it is now harder than ever to make money out of innovations, which are very quickly either copied or superseded by rivals. Intellectual property can be protected using patents or copyright but there is nothing to prevent someone from reverse engineering your innovation and then finding out how to do it differently, and probably better and more cheaply.
Whether they work for small companies or large ones, start-ups or established businesses, managers should see innovation as a continuous process, a flow of new goods and processes and ideas that constantly update and upgrade what already exists, and gives ever greater satisfaction to customers.
Staying ahead of, or at least abreast of, the competition requires more than just inventors in a workshop or scientists in a laboratory churning out ideas that the company then tries to exploit. R&D is vitally important but innovation can include not only new approaches to marketing and branding but new methods of organising work. One of the most significant business innovations of the 20th century was the series of cost accounting techniques developed by Donaldson Brown, financial controller at Du Pont and later General Motors. His ideas - including return on investment, forecasting and flexible budgeting - made it far easier for managers to access and understand financial data.
For the small, newly established company the ability to think creatively is vital, and few come through the critical first two years without it. Creative thinking can be applied across the board, not just to products and processes, but to marketing, finance, human resources, organisation and operations of every kind.
And because no innovation lasts, the new company cannot rest on its laurels. Each innovation carries the seeds of its own redundancy, and no sooner does each new innovation roll out than it is time to start thinking of the next one. Tomorrow: building the management teams
企业生命周期系列: 创新无止境
我们经常从两个方面来思考创新。首先是创新的产品。这些产品抓住了公众的想法，并满足人们的需要。例如iPod数字音乐播放器、戴森(Dyson)真空吸尘器和发条收音机之类。其次是创新的流程，它们把产品和服务的生产与交付变得更便宜、更高效，网上银行就是一例。人们通常认为，任何一个新企业，至少要具备其中的一样，才能获得成功。
不过，其实还有其它创新的方法。在一个已经建立起来的市场中找到一个利基市场，然后设法满足其需求，这并不属于以上任何一个方面，但它同样需要创新的思维。冰淇淋制造商班杰利(Ben and Jerry’s)的品牌及营销策略以产品质量为依托，占据了冰淇淋市场的一席之地，深受大众欢迎。其创始者认为，价高质优的冰淇淋能够找到、也将会找到富裕的消费者，该想法本身就如同他们后来的营销策略一样，极富创新性。在英国，The Body Shop的成功部分要归功于它的环保产品，但部分也因为其创始人围绕环保主义和社会责任的思想创造了一个强大品牌。这在当时是一个极大的创新。
不仅如此，那些以成功产品或创新流程起步的企业，迟早会面临如何保持创新优势的问题。我们经常会读到，创新的步伐越来越快，更多的新创意正涌向市场，速度比以往任何时候都要快。
这一趋势的另一方面说明，现在要想从创新上挣到钱，比从前任何时候都更难，因为竞争对手很快就能复制或超过你的创意。专利权或著作权虽然能保护你的知识产权，却阻止不了别人将你的创意一步步倒回去，拆开看个究竟，从而找到不同的替代方法，而且很可能是更好、更便宜的方法。
不管是为小公司还是大公司服务，也不管是为初创公司还是名噪一时的企业工作，管理者都应当把创新看成一个连续的过程，一个产品、流程和创意不断推陈出新、更新换代的过程，一个让客户更加满意的过程。
要引领竞争，或至少在竞争中不落伍，仅靠发明家和科学家在车间或实验室里推出创意、然后由企业来开发是不够的。研发固然至关重要，但创新不仅仅包括新的营销和品牌推广方式，还能包括新的工作组织方法。唐纳森?布朗(Donaldson Brown)先后在杜邦(Du Pont)和通用汽车(General Motors)担任财务总监，他发展出的一系列成本会计技巧是20世纪最重要的商业创新之一。他对有关投资回报、预测和弹性预算的看法，使经理们能更容易地获取并理解财务数据。
对新成立的小公司来说，创新思维的能力至关重要，很少有不具备这一点的公司能挺过关键的头两年。创新思维的应用可以跨越公司内部的界限，不仅仅体现在产品和流程上，还体现在营销、财务、人力资源、以及各种组织和运营工作上。
由于没有一个创新能够长久持续下去，所以新公司不能坐吃老本。每一个创新思想在问世之际，就埋下了淘汰自身的种子。一旦等到它开始产生效益，就该着手思考下一个创新了。
